Zabrucky, K. (1986). The role of factual coherence in discourse comprehension. Discourse Processes, 9(2), 197-220.

Zabrucky, K.

1986

Zabrucky, K. (1986). The role of factual coherence in discourse comprehension. Discourse Processes, 9(2), 197-220.

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Investigated the effects of breakdowns in referential (R) and factual coherence (FC) on text comprehension, using 56 university students. Breakdowns in RC produced by distant antecedent information hindered reading times of texts but not text memory; those produced by absent antecedent information hindered both. Breakdowns in FC hindered reading times of texts and hindered text memory when the comprehension goal of readers was an integrative one, requiring readers to update old knowledge with new information, but not when the comprehension goal was to accurately recall the texts. Recall results for the more integrative task suggested that new factually inconsistent information is particularly salient and memorable to Ss, whereas memory for "old" factually inconsistent knowledge is hindered. Results are discussed in terms of possible constructive and reconstructive processes contributing to hindered memory for factually inconsistent information.

The reading-time results indicate that both referential and factual coherence affect the speed of discourse comprehension. While sentence comprehension was affected by the distance of antecedent information from the sentences, comprehension was not affected by the directness of the information. While breakdowns in referential coherence produced by indirect antecedent information slowed sentence comprehension somewhat, the effect was not significant.

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